Jeremiah 33:14–26
The Branch of Righteousness
Where the Greek went wrongThirteen verses about David’s throne and the priests are missing from the Greek Jeremiah.
Side by Side
The Hebrew
The source text
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. … For thus saith Yahuah; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.
The Greek
Septuagint, where it went wrong
In the cities of the hill country … flocks shall yet pass under the hand of him that numbers them, saith the Lord. (The chapter ends here. Verses 14–26 are not in the Greek.)
Your KJV reads: the Hebrew, with all thirteen verses.
See what changed and why ↓What Your Bible Says
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
Jeremiah 33:15 KJV
Then the promise is sealed. David will never lack a man on the throne, and the priests the Levites will never lack a man before Yahuah (Jeremiah 33:17–18). Yahuah ties it to the order of day and night:
If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
Jeremiah 33:20–21 KJV
What the Greek Says
The Greek Jeremiah ends the chapter at verse 13. The Branch, the throne, the priests, the covenant of day and night: none of it is there.
The Greek Jeremiah is shorter than the Hebrew all through the book, and some of its chapters run in a different order. Here what it lacks is a Messiah passage.
What Changed
Thirteen verses are missing. A reader of the Greek never hears that the Branch will rule, that the throne of David cannot fail, or that Yahuah’s covenant stands as fixed as day and night.
Which One Is Right?
The Hebrew text has all thirteen verses.
A Hebrew scroll from the Dead Sea caves, copied before the cross, has verses 16 to 20: Judah saved, David’s throne, the priests the Levites, and the covenant of day and night. The passage was in Hebrew copies before the cross.
The Greek Bible lacks it.
Jeremiah 23:5–6 gives the same Branch promise, and the Greek has that one. The promise is Jeremiah’s, in both places.
Purpose of the Change
Whether the Greek translators worked from a shorter copy or dropped the passage themselves, the effect is the same. The Greek reader loses the promise that ties David’s throne and a lasting priesthood to one covenant, fulfilled in Messiah.
The Bottom Line
The Greek lost thirteen verses about the Branch. The Hebrew kept them, and a scroll copied before the cross confirms them.
The Branch speaks for Himself at the close of the Book: “I Yahushua have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16).
Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it
The Scroll
The scroll is a copy of Jeremiah from Cave 4 at Qumran. Its handwriting dates it to about the time Messiah was born, most likely just before. It is broken, but verses 16 to 20 survive, and they read like the Hebrew text. This is not a passage invented after the cross.
King and Priest in One
Zechariah names the same Branch: “Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH … and he shall be a priest upon his throne” (Zechariah 6:12–13). Throne and priesthood meet in one Man, a priest “for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4). He shares that honor with His people, whom He “hath made … kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:6).
A Name a City Can Wear
In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, Yahuah our righteousness.
Jeremiah 33:16 KJV
In Jeremiah 23:6 the King is called “Yahuah our righteousness.” Here Jerusalem wears the same name. Some teachers use 23:6 to argue the Son is Yahuah. A city carrying the Name does not become Yahuah, and neither does the Son who carries it. The name tells whose righteousness it is.
An Honest Note
Many scholars think the Greek Jeremiah was translated from an older, shorter Hebrew edition, and that this passage was added to the Hebrew later. Others hold that the longer form also carries Jeremiah’s own message, kept by those around him. Some Qumran copies of Jeremiah do follow the shorter Greek form in other chapters. But the scroll that holds this chapter has the passage, and it was copied before the cross. Whatever its history, it was Scripture in Hebrew before the cross.